Developing Sustainable Processes through Knowledge Management

Sustainable development of a process depends on a harmonious association of three sustainable pillars: Economy, Society, and Environment. Yet, in case of DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) process, the combination is challenged by inefficient management of knowledge resource in the process. The potential economy resource is not preserved and renewed, and therefore influents on sustainability of the process. In this article, the authors present and discuss sustainable aspects of a knowledge management model for DMAIC in which knowledge resource is accumulated and reused efficiently. In particular, the key concepts of sustainable development are reviewed, a process of knowledge management based on Ontology Engineering is presented, and sustainable criterial and measures for the proposed model are applied. The authors find that preserving and renewing knowledge is an indispensable process of sustainable development of DMAIC process.